Spaghetti Salad Recipe

If you are looking for the PERFECT dish to bring to a pot luck dinner, this is the one! It is one of our most popular posts, and it tastes AMAZING!

When we were growing up, one of my favorite parts of getting together with our extended family was the yummy dishes that everyone would bring to share. This is one of the EASIEST dishes you will make!

This recipe was one that was a staple at family gatherings and it’s always been a hit with my kids because they love anything with spaghetti noodles. There are also a lot of vegetables in it which is a WIN WIN for everyone!

One of the best things about this recipe is that you don’t have to use all of the ingredients! Don’t like cucumbers? Good, then don’t add them! Love mushrooms? Throw them right in.

If you want to make this into a meal, you could easy add chicken, turkey or even ham! My husband doesn’t think it is a meal if it doesn’t have meat.

This is how easy it is to make Spaghetti Salad:

All you are going to do is add these ingredients. My trick is to cut them up small. Then you can get more vegetables or cheese in one bite!

What you need:

thin spaghetti, broke into 3-4″ pieces

Roma tomatoes, diced

zucchini, diced

yellow zucchini squash, diced

green pepper, diced

red pepper, diced

red onion, diced

cucumber, diced

olives, drained

cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes

How to cook the pasta for Spaghetti Salad:

People like their pasta cooked differently. For me, I like it just a little firm so it won’t turn to mush when you mix it. You have to remember that when cooking the pasta, it is angel hair, so it cooks pretty fast! Watch it and make sure it isn’t too over done!

Make sure when cooking pasta, you season it with salt. Not only does it make it boil faster, it makes your pasta taste delicious!

Also add 3 Tablespoons of olive oil as your water is boiling. This will make the pasta not stick together. No one likes big chunks of pasta.

Wait until you have a nice boil before adding your pasta! That will make sure the oil is spread around the water so it will spread evenly around the noodles.

Watch how to make Spaghetti Salad HERE (Video)

Wondering what to serve with this pasta salad?
Here are some delicious Six Sisters’ Stuff recipes:

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I made this today and it's outstanding! I used a dry mix and made my Zesty Italian salad dressing instead. It made so much I tried 3 of my biggest bowls and still had trouble tossing it.....love love love this recipe. Thank you very much!!!

I made this a few nights ago and it is outstanding. Only thing I did was to leave the zucchini and yellow squash out cause we really don't care for them. Also, when I first made it I didn't have the Salad Supreme but it was still great. Then the next day I went and got the Salad Supreme and it was great with it also. I also think that the Robusto Italian Wishbone dressing made it extra tasty instead of just regular Italian dressing. Try this, you won't be disappointed. :)

Can this be served warm as a main dish for picky eaters that don't like having salad type foods for dinner?
I can't wait to try it. It looks so good. Thank you for all the recipes. I have loved all of them i've tried.

Hi Karen. Just click on the MAGIC button under the picture on the post, then click on NUTRITION. It will give you all of the nutritional info and calories for this recipe. All of our recipes have a MAGIC button. Hope this helps!!

I make this with gluten free pasta and it is so good! Thanks so much for the direction to the magic button for nutrition information!!! My daughter is diabetic and I will be checking out all of the recipes on your site for sure now that I can get the carb counts. Thanks a bunch!!

Hi Sue, sometimes click on the black square and then exit out of the tab on top then it will let you copy and paste. Sorry, the ad had been having some problems lately and we are trying to get that fixed. You can also click on the print friendly button under the picture.

i've been making this for years, but i don't use zucchini, olives and all the cheese(though i have used cheese in my personal serving). i do use baby carrots that i use a small blender to turn into bits, bacon, pepper flakes and chicken breast diced, along with wheat noodles. for my personal serving i add soy and sriracha sauce, it's really good.

This pasta salad turned out amazing! I loved that I had most of the veggies at home from my garden and I was trying to find a recipe to use them in and this one looked delicious. I didn't add onion or olives since I don't care for them and I was skeptical to add the zucchini and squash uncooked but it tasted great! I will definitely be making this again real soon!!!!

Hi there,
This recipe looks great! Just a question: what ingredients would I use to make just a basic Italian salad dressing for this? I haven't heard of that brand of dressing either, where do you get it?
Thanks!

Any Italian dressing will do. Even the store brand tastes great in this salad.They sell it at Wal Mart. Here is the link you can from Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/Wish-Bone-Salad-Dressing-Robusto-Italian/dp/B01GCO403A/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1485801493&sr=8-1&keywords=wishbone+robusto+italian+dressing

I was at a party, there was a 3 bean salad, it had olives, red/green onions cucumber eggs , kidney bean, chilli bean, I cant remember the last bean, salad mixed with Mayo,tang of mustard has anyone heard of this other bean/ Idea for another Ingredient? Thank you

Been making this salad since the 80’s. My dressing is slightly different. I use the Italian dressing with a whole 2 oz bottle of McCormicks salad supreme. Doesn’t need any other spices. It’s so versatile because you can vary types of pasta and vegetables to your liking. Makes a large amount for a crowd. Can make it a day ahead. Last a few days before vegetables get soft. Delicious!

I made this for the first time. It's delicious. I used about 2/3 jar of the dressing and added some olive oil. I left out the cheddar cheese, increased the parmesan cheese and added parsley. Went to family reunion potluck. It was perfect and everyone loved it

Oh know! Everybody leaves great reviews and it turned out so great for them! Mine has a very powerful garlic taste and I measured everything! How can I fix it? Ough it looks amazing but the taste is not there! 😕

We are so sorry it didn't turn out Gwen. This is often a staple at so many of our family parties. Super easy and delicious. Maybe leave out the garlic powder in the dressing if it had a strong garlic taste. Other than that, there is really no garlic in this recipe.